by Falon Gold
Blake drops the bacon, to catch my blown kiss in one fist then palms his cheek before vanishing, again.
“Come and eat, everyone,” my mother shouts, from the kitchen. “Everyone except Blake that is.”
“Mama O, come on!” he whines, possibly standing right behind her and salivating over whatever she’s transferring to a serving dish.
Derek waits for us to walk past, before he falls in line behind us, with me leading the way to the dining room. After passing over the threshold into the kitchen, where my mother bends down in front of a stainless-steel stove, removing biscuits from the oven, I veer to the left and walk through another wide doorway.
Everyone would normally be in the small breakfast room on the right side of the kitchen, seated around the custom-made, circular breakfast nook. However, everyone isn’t in there. Most are already in the formal dining room, only my father and Tommy are missing, both probably in the den. I glance heavenward, at the huge chandelier with gold spider arms angling toward the high ceiling and burgundy lamps encasing the bulbs. I remember when I had the misfortune of getting caught swinging from one of the arms. Blake dared me a whole fifty cents to do it, which I thought was a lot of money at nine-years-old. So I did it, but didn’t get the fifty cents.
The spanking I got in its place wasn’t worth it either. Blake got one too for daring me, which is why he didn’t pay me, and I didn’t let him talk me into anything else after that. Luckily for him, the poo incident came a year earlier. What Blake tricked me into doing then shall never be spoken of.
I seat Apollo and Derek in the empty chairs one seat down from the head of the table, where my father and mother will sit, making sure Derek is seated next to Chrysalis. Hopefully, her presence will keep him from provoking Apollo again.
Frank and Tommy enter the room. Neither is smiling, which is odd for Tommy.
Something isn’t right.
Apollo’s first visit is turning out to be more nerve-racking than doing several jobs at his company. My nerves rattle inside me, as I step back toward the hutch filled with dishes that we never eat out of. My father and uncle claim the narrow walkway between me and the dining room table and take their seats. Tommy will speak his mind, which doesn’t amount to much when you don’t know what will come from him next. My father hasn’t had to deal with male visitors of mine, ever, so I don’t have the faintest clue of what he’ll do and say, period.
Frank grabs the empty seat at the head of the table. Tommy sits on his left, in front of Apollo but beside Derek. Luke is positioned beside Apollo, with the twins, Jen and Barbie, taking up the rest of the seats on the opposite end of the table from my father. My mother will take her husband’s lap, like always, which leaves nowhere for me to sit.
I can always eat standing up, I muse, before I leave the room to help my mother haul breakfast platters, dinner plates, and utensils into the dining room. I stop beside her who is glazing the biscuits with butter, to pull dinner plates from the top shelf of the oak cabinet. I stretch up, but Blake appears behind me and grabs them first, setting them on the countertop filled with small kitchen appliances and ceramic jars.
“Take them in, Blake,” Lydia says suddenly. “I need to speak with Malisa.”
I sidestep, so Blake can switch out the platter of bacon for the dinner plates.
He nods, giving no customary back talk just to receive a smack upside the back of his head for it.
Oh God, something is definitely up, but at least my nerves can’t get any more shaken.
Whatever is up, I’m in the middle of it, all by my lonesome.
“Follow me, baby girl,” my mother demands.
She turns one hundred and eighty degrees then moves toward the closed pantry door. She goes in first and flips the switch. The room has always felt ominous to me because the single bulb above us has never cast that much light. Ominous is having triple the effect with anxiety pooling inside me. Then she signals for me to close the door behind us.
“What’s is it, mama?”
“Are you okay? Your father heard the argument between Derek and Apollo, and I know him. He’s not taking this well.” This is new for all of us.
“I’m fine, mama. Apollo just—”
“Apollo is just jealous, Malisa. Derek gained some points with the family, for backing off when you told him to. But Apollo is not faring so well with his outburst of jealousy in the living room. It’s typical of men in love, but that doesn’t mean we like it. Jealous sometimes leads to other problems in a relationship.”
Shit! I’ll bet they’re all reporting to each other on every move we make, too.
I swipe at my forehead wearily. “So you guys are a network of spies now?”
“Damn straight. When it comes to you, we’re all ready to kill on command, if needed. Now, do us a favor and stick close to the house, for as long as Apollo’s here. In case you’re wondering, Derek’s provoking him intentionally to see what he’ll do.”
“I knew you two were up to something. Why you would you do that to Apollo?”
“Because that’s what investigators do, find out shit. So I hired him while you were upstairs talking to Apollo. Derek chose to do it for free since he can’t stay for long. We both want to know if Apollo has any bad tendencies. I want them to show up today.”
“Jesus, mama—”
“Jesus has nothing to do with this, Malisa. You live a whole state away from the safety of your family. Yes, Apollo loves you. That much I’m sure of, but that doesn’t make him a good guy or the right guy for you, and Jesus rarely shows up when your children are in the company of a monster. That’s why they have parents.”
God, my whole family is overreaching and completely paranoid.
But at least Derek is being an asshat to Apollo for a reason, my mother’s.
I take her hands in mine.
“Mama, Apollo’s a good guy who wants to stay here for a few more days to get to know me. But I suspect he’s wanting to let you all get to know him, too. A monster wouldn’t do that if he could help it. They tend to isolate their women.”
“I know, but listen, baby girl—”
“You guys have to trust me. I’ve lived at Apollo’s side, literally, day in and day out, and he’s never done or said anything out of the way to anyone. If he had said something about his feelings for me, we would’ve been together way before now. I know what I want. But even if Apollo and I are together to the end of time, I’m not staying away from my family anymore, so stop worrying.”
Her fingers squeeze mine, and she smiles. I don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that her daughter being out of reach is what’s worrying her the most.
“I trust you, love, and yes, it would be nice if you visited a lot more often. Hell, I’d have started visiting you as soon as you graduated and found a job in Utah, but Blake found his way back here first. You’ve always been good at taking care of yourself, but someone has to watch over Blake until he settles down. He puts up a good front, but he still hasn’t found his place in this world yet, and he hates working and living in Colorado. I think it’s too slow for him, and his parents are still trying to convince him to become one of them. They even pulled strings to get him the Sheriff position when the last one took ill in the middle of his term. Being a deputy starting out wasn’t good enough for them. He feels somewhat obligated to stay here because they’re his parents. I wish he’d tell them to kiss off already, but I’ll stand by whatever decision you two make, and I’ll be there when you make another one, whether good or bad.”
“But you’re not going to call off your dogs, are you?” I ask, sarcastically.
She trusts me, but she cares too much for us to ever just let us do things on our own.
She snickers evilly. “Hell no. We need to get back out there so I can figure out Apollo some more.”
“Figure out,” I shriek. This has gone too far. “You are not a spy, mama!”
She stops smiling, her hazel eyes diamond hard, suddenly dead serious. �
�Says you, Malisa. I’m whatever I need to be to make sure you’re happy. That includes being an axe-murderer.” And she’s an eavesdropper, too.
“Why do I believe you?”
“Because you should. My father wasn’t a mob boss, but he led a gang in Chicago and did whatever needed to be done for his family. My parents taught me to do the same before they both died in a drive-by, right after I met your father on a college campus. They both were too young to die from natural causes as I led you to believe. I was supposed to be taking some drugs to your father’s friends when he asked me out. And then, I got pregnant with you. I’m sure you don’t need those details, just that I moved here to Colorado before I had you, where my old life had next to zero chances to touch you. But it’ll touch Apollo if he isn’t careful and you come home with one more broken heart.”
Chapter Fifteen
I stare at my mother dumbfounded. I have a new respect for her, if it is even possible to respect her more. She’d left all she’d known to make a good life for me and someone else’s child here, and she’s still doing it even after we’ve grown up. I suspect I’ll care for my children just as much and will try to circumvent whatever troubles they may have, if I can, however I need to.
“I never knew my grandfather was a thug. You could’ve told me. I would’ve understood. Everybody has beginnings and now I know where you got your edge from it.”
“In that case, your grandmother was his bottom bitch, and God knows I hope you don’t know what that means. You weren’t supposed to know any of this until you were old enough to understand, Malisa. Your father wanted me to tell you way before now, so you didn’t grow up sheltered. But who could grow up sheltered around Blake? That kid was a bad influence if I ever knew one.”
“You are not lying there. I stuck my hand in dog poo because of him.”
She giggles hard enough to make her shoulders and ample breasts vibrate under a black long-sleeve blouse topping her navy-blue slacks.
“You telling me the gritty details of your childhood wouldn’t have been bad for me, mama, especially after dealing with Blake.”
“It was hard enough living with my childhood myself. I would never have subjected you to the details of it when you were young,” Lydia says sincerely.
“I understand, mama; I really do. Now, let’s get back out there before something else happens. Daddy’s in the dining room with Apollo, and your husband doesn’t look happy. Neither does Uncle Tommy. That’s worrying all by itself.”
She reaches behind me and pushes the door open. We walk in the direction of massive amounts of chatter migrating out of the dining room, filling up the kitchen. Even Apollo is laughing at something, his laughter taking up most of the space in the kitchen. Derek is listening intently to Chrysalis, who’s thirty-eight, divorced, and probably explaining that she runs a bounty-hunting agency with her twin sisters, out of Spinley, a small but high-crime city only one county over. I realize these two have a lot of common, Derek being only two years younger than Chrysalis.
However, daddy seems to just be observing, as usual. Never the one to jump to conclusions, he takes his sweet time making decisions about everything. He’s giving Apollo a chance to grow on him. My mother usually swings her axe first, and maybe give her unapologetic reasons for it later. If you have a problem with them, well, that’s your problem. But she must be giving Apollo a chance to grow on her, too, for me, because her axe is still stuck in the chopping block and not being wiped down. I’m blessed to have the parents that were gifted to me. Even if they are nosy as hell.
I stop in the doorway and turn to Lydia beside me. “Thanks, mama.”
She frowns by squishing up her button nose and furrowing her forehead. “For what?”
“For being you... and not swinging your axe yet.”
She grins, deviously. “It’s being sharpened as we speak, baby girl. Just in case.”
I turn my head, or she’d slap me on the back of it if she saw me rolling my eyes. “Lord, this is going to be a few days to remember.”
She snorts. “If Blake is here, damn straight it will be. He’s two handfuls, and he doesn’t care who knows it.”
She leaves me to walk by Blake, who’s sitting in front of the dishes, which he was left to carry into the dining room by himself. Apollo is being flanked on both sides by two of the biggest men in my family; Blake and my father. He doesn’t seem to care that they’re surrounding him, which shouldn’t bother me much since he’s massive himself at six feet three inches, but it does. I grow more so when my mother walks over to my father, to sit down sideways in his lap, as soon as he makes room for her to slide her short legs under the table. She’s the smallest and most dangerous of the crew, even if Chrysalis is a bad ass in her own right.
After Tommy is finished cracking his latest joke, Apollo looks up at me, and then he stands up. “Come sit down, my Lisa. You haven’t eaten anything.”
I tilt my head to the side, waiting for him to reach me. I love him a little more for always seeming to think of me, even when I don’t realize he’s doing it or remember to appreciate it.
“Still keeping tabs on my digestive track, huh?”
“Always.”
“But you’re the guest, Apollo. I can eat standing up.”
His feet move into the narrow walkway, bringing him to me and making the room grow eerily quiet. “I’m good, sweetheart. A gentleman doesn’t leave his woman standing.”
“I’ll sit when you’re done, Apollo. Deal?” I bargain, hoping he isn’t going to make a big deal of who sits down in front of everyone in the room. They’re watching us like hawks.
He shakes his head and reaches for my hand. “No deal, love. You can have my lap.” Then he dips his head closer to mine. “I’ve missed you, and I need to make up for the time we spent apart this weekend.”
My eyes stray to everyone else. Blake nods. My father winks. I sigh, feeling outnumbered. My next lesson in letting my man do something for me is already here. Since I’ve already been down this road, I go with the one less traveled.
“Fine, Apollo. You get your way, this time.”
I let him guide me to his chair, where I mimic my mother’s position in my father’s lap on Apollo’s. He reaches around my waist with one hand and for the forkful of fluffy scrambled eggs laying on his plate in front of me with the other. When he lifts it, the eggs wobble on the utensil, threatening to fall in my lap. I cup one palm under the fork automatically, toss the other behind his back, just as my mother is doing for my father who’s always juggled her on his lap and eating. They’ve done this for as long as I’ve been alive at least.
Apollo guides the food to my mouth instead of his.
Lydia laughs behind me. “You’re a quick learner, Malisa. I had to get a spoonful of hot mashed potatoes in my lap before I figured out to watch your father with food like a hawk. He refuses to get that I bought enough chairs so everyone would have somewhere to sit.”
“My lap is your chair, sweetheart,” my father says, before kissing her cheek quickly.
Tommy sniggers under his breath, the only warning you get before someone becomes the butt of his joke. “God knows your lap is big enough to sit everyone in here in it altogether, Frank. Luke’s, too.”
Getting in two butts for one of his jokes is common, too.
Someone snorts, and the room erupts with laughter.
My father rests his fork on the side of his plate, closes his eyes, and shakes his head. “Shut up, Tommy.”
My uncle shrugs his slim shoulders and tries to stop laughing, but snorts break free from deep within his throat. “It’s not my fault you’re both are built like damn lumberjacks. God rest your dead mother’s and father’s souls.”
My mother covers her mouth and turns toward me to hide her giggles.
My father sighs and grits his teeth. “They were your parents too, and for God’s sake, shut... up... Tommy.”
I barely notice when Blake gets up from the table suddenly, with Apollo’s chest v
ibrating against my side. His quiet but manic laughter is making his arms shake and almost impossible for him to stab more eggs with his fork. I’m not interested in getting a lap full of anything, so I watch him closely.
“I love your family,” says Apollo.
“Oh, they’re a riot,” I respond, with a smirk. “But it will get old to you when you become the butt of their jokes.”
“That just means you’re a part of the family, sweetheart.”
“Now tell us about your family, Apollo,” Blake demands suddenly from behind us.
The mirth rumbling through Apollo’s body stops suddenly. He freezes in place, as if he’s death warmed over, while staring down at his plate. I know immediately that this is a sore subject for him. But we all want to know about his origins, and he is going to have to open up. I start to stroke his back, hoping to give him reassurance that it’s okay and he isn’t alone, and wanting to kill Blake for ruining the good time that Apollo was having.
I swear Blake timed it perfectly, as if he knew when the mention of family would come up. I’m sure it would have, at some point. But, did he have to be the one to bring it up and kill the mood for everyone?
I glare back at him. He’s now standing in the back entrance to my father’s den, eating a slice of bacon casually, as if he didn’t just become a major ass and killjoy for everyone. Or at least for me and Apollo. The turning of Apollo’s head draws my attention.
When I look down, he’s looking back, with the guiltiest of expressions on his face.
“I don’t have any family,” he says softly.
He seems to be confessing. I feel terrible for him, and can’t imagine not having any family behind me. I grow to appreciate the presence of mine even more, faults and all, maybe not Blake’s presence for a while though. He seems to be going out of his way to put Apollo on the hot seat.
